Personal Music Libraries Growing With Music Never Intended For Sale?

While the sharing of music tracks has been big news for a while, the sharing of bootlegs, radio-edits, personal-gig-recordings and other music never intended for sale seems to be booming too. Our iTunes and other music libraries are filling up with music that record companies aren’t trying to sell.

I recently found myself sending a link to a site called Hypeful with MP3s of 2008 best covers to friends. The list includes Vampire Weekend’s cover of Fleetwood Mac’s Everywhere and Grnarls Barkley’s cover of Radiohead’s Recknoner. What’s interesting about Hypeful’s list is that so many of the tracks are not studio-recorded tracks. Many are recordings of bands playing often whimsical sometimes ironic covers at gigs, others have been recorded from the radio or TV and others extracted from podcasts and other streamed broadcasts.

Of course bootlegs have been around forever – but what’s noticeable is the way people online are seeking them out and then celebrating their finds in blog posts. Maybe it’s a sign that we’re tired of the tracks that artists make as work and we’d rather listen to an artist when they are really are at play.